iMessage is pretty pointless with backdoors
Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
111–120 of 785 posts
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Meta _needs_ WhatsApp to be their loss-leader (not really, but you know) when it comes to security. They always get to say "oh but WhatsApp is E2E!! We do care about security!"
The ironic thing is that WhatsApp very heavily pushes users into Google account backups, which are unencrypted, giving government agencies all the access they want. I remember some talk about those getting encrypted, don't k ow if that has happened yet.
it happened in 2021, and some form of encryption for whatsapp icloud backups has apparently been available since 2016
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#113Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#114This is a scam by the UK government, they don't care about child abuse, they are going to look into all sorts of communications to leverage people. If they cared about child abuse they would have shut down the open child prostitution rings running rampant. They openly let it continue because they are afraid of being branded racist since the gangs running them are minorities. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telford_ch…
I think it's pretty ridiculous to think there aren't white people dealing in organized sexual abuse of children
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anything that's a bolder move considering everyone uses Whatsapp there and barely anyone uses iMessage
I've noticed that too and it is super annoying having family in the UK that will only communicate via Whatsapp. Is this because cell providers outside the US charge for SMS? Even the ones who have iPhones end up using it because it is too much of a pain to use separate messaging apps.
It is mostly because international SMS and MMS is not free. People in the UK travel more to other countries, and communicate more with people in other countries.
Not to mention MMS is vastly inferior to WhatsApp and iMessage for sharing media and other information.
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#116Stuff like this is why I'm an Apple fanboy. I'm happy to pay a premium and be locked into their walled garden for some things if it means supporting a company that has the power to shift policy in favor of human rights (privacy in this case).
In fairness, Meta has said the same thing re: WhatsApp, so while Apple deserves _some_ credit here for sticking to their principles, they're not exactly leading the pack. Which brings home the point that if _Meta_ isn't onboard with your privacy-obliterating proposal then you know you've really lost the plot...
I'm not even sure anyone apart from Signal is really sticking to any principles. This system would be annoying to implement, costly to legally manage, and introduce some ops overhead and security exposure. There's way more incentives for WA and iMessage here to oppose it than just protecting their users. But only one is a cool talking point.
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anything that's a bolder move considering everyone uses Whatsapp there and barely anyone uses iMessage
I've noticed that too and it is super annoying having family in the UK that will only communicate via Whatsapp. Is this because cell providers outside the US charge for SMS? Even the ones who have iPhones end up using it because it is too much of a pain to use separate messaging apps.
It's because SMS is simply inferior to Whatsapp, Messenger, Instagram, Line, kakaotalk, Snapchat, Signal, etc unless you own an iPhone. All of them are cross platform and aren't intentionally broken for people who don't have or use iMessage. I personally avoid giving out my phone number as much as possible as all the other platforms have much better tools for communication, blocking, media, etc.
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#118Stuff like this is why I'm an Apple fanboy. I'm happy to pay a premium and be locked into their walled garden for some things if it means supporting a company that has the power to shift policy in favor of human rights (privacy in this case).
I hope they really do this. All too often Companies will say this then when the law is passed they back down. Why, stockholders. Has Apple really removed iMessage and FaceTime anywere else ? Are these available with 100% full encryption in China ? If so then they are just blowing wind :(
FaceTime was banned in the UAE up until ~2021 when it suddenly started working again for non-UAE phones[1]. For the longest time iOS/macOS has had feature and region flags at a lower hardware level that could dictate system policy for things like FaceTime as well as the camera shutter sound required in Korea/Japan.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/dubai-middle-east-united-arab-emi...
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anything that's a bolder move considering everyone uses Whatsapp there and barely anyone uses iMessage
I've noticed that too and it is super annoying having family in the UK that will only communicate via Whatsapp. Is this because cell providers outside the US charge for SMS? Even the ones who have iPhones end up using it because it is too much of a pain to use separate messaging apps.
To be fair a slightly better comparison would be MMS, but even then it doesn't compare. It's simply because data is cheap, the app is free, and the rich media features that came before iMessage/RCS existed (voice, photos/video, attachments, group chats, voip/video calling, etc), and because it's multiplatform (ios to android usage is near 50/50 or 60/40 depending on the country)
Re: Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption
#120Stuff like this is why I'm an Apple fanboy. I'm happy to pay a premium and be locked into their walled garden for some things if it means supporting a company that has the power to shift policy in favor of human rights (privacy in this case).
Unless it's China in which case they will not care about it!
Or America, as we have seen with PRISM.
Basically, it's as usual a financial calculation of what PR can brings vs what you can lose in the market.
And fanboys believe it's because they are the good guys.